RALEIGH, N.C. — University Dining’s new initiative to provide students with a pre-designed meal option is set to offer students who are unsure of how to pick out a healthy meal a guide to do so.
Lisa Eberhart, director of nutrition and wellness, recently designed the dietician’s dish, a daily entree under 500 calories which changes day to day.
“The two things I hear most from students is that they’re unsure of portion size and what is healthy to eat in the dining halls,” Eberhart said.
Undergraduates studying nutrition provide each meal in the dining halls to help students learn how to set up their plates, according to Eberhart. These students work with Eberhart to design the meals and encourage other students to recreate them.
“We had an idea of what we wanted to create each day,” said Kaitlyn Strickland, an alumna with a degree in nutrition and paraprofessional working with Dining and Catering Operations. “We pretty much created the dishes as we walked through the dining hall ourselves.”
Eberhart said creativity is essential to the process. Her interns look at the menu for the day and brainstorm to make the dietitian’s dish.
Eberhart said the idea of a dietician’s dish got started as she sought to provide a quality level of nutrition for students.
“I’m really passionate about making sure NC State students have good nutrition and healthy food choices,” she said.
Eberhart said the idea for the dish came from listening to student surveys around campus and she took on dietetic interns from universities around North Carolina to make the idea a reality.
“They wanted me to tell them what to eat,” Eberhart said.
The timing of the new dish, Eberhart said, is relevant as spring is when people start thinking more about nutrition and health.
Despite Eberhart’s enthusiasm, students have expressed various responses to the dietitian’s dish. Some have yet to explore it.
“Though I think the dietitian’s dish is a great idea, I haven’t actually been enticed to try the dishes in practice,” said Brinkley Raynor, a sophomore studying animal science. “Perhaps if there were a greater range of options, I might be convinced to deviate from my standard food selections.”
But others like Yu-Ann Chen, a junior studying biological sciences, fully support the project.
“I think the dietician’s dish is a very good way of promoting balance in one’s plate, as it is often difficult for people in dining halls to stray from just choosing the dishes that they are most familiar with, which is not always in the best interest of their health,” Chen said.